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PIPA and SOPA Co-Sponsors Abandon Bills

The widespread Internet blackout Wednesday, in which sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit went dark to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), seems to have influenced members of the U.S. Congress.

Rubio communicated his withdrawal via a Facebook post, titled "A Better Way to Fight the Online Theft of American Ideas and Jobs," in which he argues Congress should avoid rushing to pass the bill that could have unintended consequences.

"As a senator from Florida, a state with a large presence of artists, creators and businesses connected to the creation of intellectual property, I have a strong interest in stopping online piracy that costs Florida jobs.

"However, we must do this while simultaneously promoting an open, dynamic Internet environment that is ripe for innovation and promotes new technologies."

The Florida Senator encouraged his co-sponsor Nevada Sen. Harry Reid to follow his lead and abandon the bill in order to "take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet."

Following the PIPA co-sponsor's withdrawal, Texas Sen. John Cornyn followed suit, posting a statement of abandonment on Facebook Wednesday morning. Similarly, a spokesperson for Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry said the Congressman is unable to support SOPA as it's written and plans to withdraw his support as well, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

Update 2:45 p.m.: Lead SOPA sponsor, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, said Wednesday that he was not discouraged by the criticisms SOPA has received and that he continues to stand behind the bill, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Update 3:25 p.m.: Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, a PIPA co-sponsor, and Arkansas Sen. John Boozman withdrew their support for the bill.

Update 4:05 p.m.: Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch announced he would no longer co-sponsor the bill on Twitter.

Do you think the widespread website blackouts, such as Wikipedia's, are to credit for the bills' supporter drain?

BONUS: More on SOPA and PIPA

SOPA And PIPA: A Timeline Of How We Got Here

May 12: PIPA introduced

The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), better known as PIPA was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The act’s goals were described by its sponsors as protecting intellectual property and punishing foreign sites who post copyrighted material. If a site was discovered doing so, the U.S. attorney general could order U.S. based Internet service providers, search engines, payment systems and advertising networks to suspend doing business with the website.

Nov. 15: Tech Giants Weigh In

Twelve tech giants, including Google, Facebook and LinkedIn, delivered a letter of protest to the sponsors of the SOPA and PIPA legislation, calling the bill dangerous to American innovation and cybersecurity, but also acknowledged that digital piracy is a real problem.

Nov. 16: Tumblr, Mozilla, Others Post Anti-SOPA Messages

Tumblr, Mozilla and Reddit censored their content in one the first wide-scale protests of SOPA. The sites claimed the bill strengthens the U.S. Justice Department’s power to go after websites that host disputed copyright material and could make sites such as YouTube and Tumblr that host such user-generated content liable for copyright violations. Tumblr would only remove the black bars over posts if users agreed to call their representatives and protest SOPA. Reddit and Mozilla also put black bars over their logos in protest.

Dec. 15: House Meets

The House holds public hearings to discuss SOPA that were broadcast on C-SPAN and streamed online. Both pro- and anti-SOPA groups rallied that day with public messages regarding the bill. This message from the MPAA ran in the Washington Post. After a two-day debate, discussions were then delayed until Dec. 21, then delayed again until after holiday recess.

Dec. 29: GoDaddy Dump Day

Reddit declared Dec. 29 “Dump GoDaddy Day” after the domain hosting service declared they supported the legislation. Although GoDaddy quickly reversed its position, it says it lost more than 20,000 accounts because of the boycott.

Jan. 10: Reddit Announces Blackout

Reddit announced they would go black on Jan. 18, as a day to protest against SOPA/PIPA. Although they were the first to the call to action, they were quickly joined by other web companies, most notably Wikipedia, who vowed to go dark for the whole day.

Jan. 13: DNS Blocking Dropped

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who wrote the SOPA bill, announced he would remove the controversial section of the bill that would give copyright holders and the federal government the right to remove infringing websites from the DNS (Domain Name System). DNS works as a sort of “phone book” for the Internet. When a user types a URL into a browser, DNS helps the users’ computer find and speak with the correct server hosting the content the user wants to access. If a website is taken off the DNS system, it becomes more difficult for the average Internet user to arrive at that site, but savvy Internet users might still be able to access blocked sites.

Jan. 14: White House Responds

In a blog post responding to a petition posted on the White House’s website, the Obama Administration clearly laid out what it would – and would not – support in any new legislation designed to combat online piracy.

“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response,” said the note, “we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Jan. 17: Lamar Smith Announces More Rewrites

The architect of SOPA, Rep. Lamar Smith, scheduled a markup session next month in which the bill might be altered. In a markup session, a bill is opened to members of the House Judicial Committee for debate, amendments and other changes. The House will not be taking a final vote on SOPA.

Jan 18: A Day of Protest

Websites pledged to go dark in protest, and the effects were drastic. Wikipedia said 162 million people viewed its blackout page, 7 million people signed Google's petition linked on its homepage, and 4 million SOPA related tweets were sent out.

Jan. 20: SOPA Killed

Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution."

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